The last day of the month and how did we do on our grocery spending?
Let me start out by saying( because it will make me feel better, ‘mkay?) when a lot of blogs have a Boost Your Pantry Month/Week or a No Spend Month/Week they tend to stock up before hand. Just this past month one blogger in particular stated that she was stocking up in December so as not to go over her hundred dollar limit in January. I maintain that this is cheating. Some say it is good planning but I digress….
We didn’t stock up ahead because we didn’t know we were going to try to do the twenty dollar limit. We just decided and headed out.
So of course we ran out of stuff along the way.
Plus I always check the weekly sale paper for good stock up prices and they had several this month.
I’m not going to pass those up especially when it’s stuff we need now.
Well the first week of the month we went and spent $21.96 On potatoes , oil (on sale) and eggs and sinus meds and coffee. (all these things we were out of)
Pretty good.
Then we ran out of fiber. So $12.88 was the next week. (outrageous but needed)
We decided to go back and pick up more eggs since the store had them on sale 3 dozen for $4.00.
We also picked up a few other things to get us on through the month. Our total was $10.01
Charlie got sick with a sinus infection so he picked up orange juice and Epsom salts. $4.76
We ran out of dry dog food. I use it to supplement the rice and bread for much needed nutrients. The bill was $8.23.
The store ran a sale on corn meal which we were completely out of. We picked up four bags for $8.66 total.
On the way to help Dad move we stopped and bought disposable bowls for the lunch that I packed. I know PAPER! But I didn’t have enough of my own bowls to serve everyone. So sometimes you have to make exceptions. But I will be adding a few extra ceramic bowls to my collection as I find them cheap. So next time I’ll be prepared and no more buying disposables! Cost $3.99.
The last week of the month we ran out of shortening and margarine. Charlie stopped on the way home and bought those plus bananas for $12.97.
The local store also put canned green beans back on sale 3 for $1.00. We bought three flats last time they ran it for that price and still had two whole flats plus three cans from the third. But that is a great price for around here and we can’t buy the seeds and the lids for the jars to can our own that cheap so we purchased four flats on Friday for $20.26.
Which means we went way over but like I said it wasn’t set in stone. Plus a lot of it was stock up sale items and just things we ran out of but needed.
Our total including the initial shopping trip at the first of the month was $103.72.
We’ll see if we can’t beat it this next month.
***********************
On another note, we received our utilities this past weekend. Our gas bill this time last year ran us a little over a hundred dollars. This year with the wood stove and limiting our use of the bedroom gas heater our bill was 11.42! Yay!
By unplugging our energy drainers like the coffee pot, tv, cell charger, etc., we lowered our electric as well. Last month our bill was 173.45 on 29 days. This month our bill was 150.54 on 32 days-more days on the meter and it was less! Amazing how just remembering to unplug something that isn’t being used and turning out a light when you leave the room makes such a difference!
We will continue to see how low we can get it this next month since Charlie adjusted the temperature on the refrigerator. Curious to see what impact that will have on the bill. I love my side by side but it is by far the biggest energy eater we have. And yes, it is an energy efficient appliance; purchased in 2010. But the difference in the bill between it and our old not-suppose-to-be-energy-efficient-because-of-it’s-age model is astounding! The old one is still running and being used in the shop to hold water. Our bill out there for the month was 32.96. That’s the frig and two chest deep freezers. Doesn’t sound too bad to me.
Anyway, we will see and I’ll let you know!
Good luck to you if you are trying to lower your utilities too!
Have a great day!
Until next time……Kristi.
